>>718752617
You gain EXP from clearing enemy strongholds, beating bosses, doing quests, finding treasure and beating dungeons.
Doing big missions like a 10+ floor dungeon or taking back a settlement from the enemies will give a lot more EXP than just clearing bandit camps.
Once you level up, you can increase your stats, which mostly just make numbers go up, and gain skill points that you can use to train active and passive abilities, which heavily affect your gameplay. Skills include specialising in weapons, which makes the animations faster which is vital for stronger opponents, specialising in your chosen armor type, which makes you more agile and nimble, learning new attacks or maneuvers like disarm and stunning attacks and buying passive buffs like "+10% damage for 10 seconds after each kill"
Each individual weapon has it's own attack speed, reach, stance/poise damage and damage value, making them all unique, even if all weapons of the same type use the same base animation. Some weapons will have special properties like a guisarme can be used to pull enemies closer or push them away on hit. Weapons are generated with a level and every weapon can be upgraded using materials that have to be found in dungeons to be viable. Playing without a weapon is an option. Your weaponless damage is upgraded by buying unarmed skills with skill points.
Armor will come with a defense value, stance/poise value and encumbrance value. Some armor will also give other buffs like an attack boost. Like weapons, all armor is generated with a level and can be upgraded. Playing unarmored is an option. You will be very agile but die in very few hits and some enemies like slow brutes and bosses will oneshot you from full health.
Up to 4 accessories can be worn to provide different buffs and sometimes stronger buffs at the exchange of debuffs.
Purely cosmetic clothing and capes can be worn alongside armor. Armor, clothing and capes can be dyed.
